New research highlights a largely overlooked risk to food production systems: widespread soil contamination by heavy metals. A large-scale analysis of nearly 800,000 global soil samples found that about 17% of the world’s surface soils exceed safe thresholds for at least one toxic metal. For the agriculture sector, that’s a red flag not just for food security, but also for long-term business continuity.
Roughly 242 million hectares of cropland—around 16% of the global total—are now believed to be affected by excessive levels of metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and cobalt. The areas most at risk align with key agricultural regions across South Asia, southern China, the Middle East, and parts of Africa and Central America. These are also regions where population growth and demand for agricultural output are highest.
This contamination isn’t just accidental. It reflects a long-term interaction between environmental conditions and human activity. Warmer climates, for instance, tend to show higher concentrations of metals in soil—especially in subtropical monsoon zones, where nearly 34% of soils exceed global safety thresholds. Meanwhile, mountainous regions demonstrate elevated risk levels due to erosion and natural metal enrichment in the bedrock.
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